Leicester coach, Laurie Edwards said after the game that it was the toughest cup tie he'd ever seen. Not surprising in a battle at Filbert Street between two sides who swapped places the previous season. Leicester were pushing hard to regain their top flight status, Brentford battling hard to avoid an immediate drop back into Division Two and both could have been forgiven for taking their foot off the gas in the cup in light of their respective league positions. They didn't, with Leicester putting in a good first half, taking the lead through Arthur Mews before having to survive a Brentford onslaught in the second half. The visiting Bees saw an effort come back off a post and appealed loudly for a penalty for handball against Willie Frame. The referee was unmoved and Brentford were out of the cup. It proved a mixed blessing for both sides. Leicester were involved in a nine goal fourth round tie, which included a hat-trick for Liddle as Watford were beaten 6-3 before losing at Middlesbrough in round five, having taken an early lead in a game that almost ended in tragedy when a wall collapsed after Middlesbrough equalised. With Leicester's eye off the ball they missed out on promotion but the Brentford players must have really hurt after the cup tie as they didn't lose another game all season, finishing unbeaten in nineteen top flight matches to finish fifth. When Filbert Street played host to its final game in 2002 Seb Smith {above} was the guest of honour. Smith, the last survivor of the '36 Leicester team passed away in 2006.

A year earlier this was a top flight League game which ended in a dull 0-0 draw and ultimately helped seal Tottenham's relegation to the Second Division. This time it was a tight fourth round cup tie between two sides chasing their respective titles. Huddersfield were a distant third to top flight leaders, Sunderland. Tottenham were also third in a much closer Second Division fight with real prospects of a return to the big time. The tie was remembered for the controversey in which it was won when Leslie Howe's free kick flew through several bodies before beating Hugh Turner. The incensed keeper pleaded first with the referee and then with the linesman to disallow the goal on account of it hitting a Tottenham arm on the way to goal but both remained unmoved and Spurs were through to an all Second Division tie against Bradford {Park Avenue}. A replay back at White Hart Lane saw Spurs through to a quarter final at Sheffield United but on a skating tink of a pitch the cup run came to an end, beaten 1-3. Spurs' promotion push also skated off track and it would take them fourteen years to put it right.

Fog descended on Sheffield on fourth round day to match the mood of a nation that was mourning the death of its King the previous week and made any hope of play impossible but when the sides did meet two days later it was in perfect conditions and a perfect pitch. Newcastle came from behind to earn a replay with a hotly disputed goal, The Wednesday players claiming that Harry Ware's shot did not cross the line after hitting a post but on balance few begrudged the Magpies a second chance that their play at Hillsborough fully merited. The Owls were without Ted Catlin for the replay two days later and while his replacement, Wright cut a nervous and hesitant figure in the Owls' back line, it would be unfair to lay the blame for their demise on him alone. The cup holders were very out of sorts against the Magpies from Division Two who had been relegated two seasons earlier and whose League form lacked the edge necessary to push for promotion back to the big time. Jack Smith had given the hosts a first half lead but the key moment of the tie came in the first five minutes of the second half. Ellis Rimmer's equaliser could have been the spur to help the holders through a sticky tie but Newcastle went back in front straight from the kick off through Wilf Bott. The former Huddersfield winger put the seal on the victory ten minutes from time in what turned out to be his finest performance in an otherwise uninspiring stint at St James' Park. League Champions, Arsenal were the visitors in round five and attracted a crowd so large that the game had to be stopped for a period as the they spilled onto the pitch. A crush had developed in one of the stands shortly after the Gunners had taken the lead and fans had been left with no option but to make for the pitch before a potentially fatal situation developed. Amazingly only a handful of fans required treatment from the St John's Ambulance for minor injuries while the rest of the fans were packed back into the stands by the police so that the game could continue. When it did, Newcastle avoided a disaster on the field as well, battling to an exciting 3-3 draw and a trip back to Highbury where the Champions ultimately proved too strong.

Promotion chasing Sheffield United saw off top flight Preston at the second attempt at Bramall Lane in a victory made all the more remarkable by the fact they played the majority of the game with ten men after Stacey limped off with a torn hamstring. Despite their handicap the Blades enjoyed the greater share of posession and deservedly took the lead with just over a quarter of the game to go when Harry Barton raced through and fired past Holdcroft before Jock Dodds wrapped up the tie to set up a fifth round home tie with Leeds.

A battle between two sides struglling in their respective divisions was rarely going to attract great public attention and in awful weather it's hardly surprising it didn't. The original fourth round day came and went without a ball kicked in anger in the city as both this tie and neighbour's Bradford {Park Avenue}'s fell foul of heavy snow and freezing conditions. The two Bradford clubs now had the right to avoid a fixture clash and decided by toss of a coin who would play their tie the following Wednesday. Park Avenue won and their own cup tie is recorded below but City would now have to wait until the following Monday to finally get at Blackburn Rovers. The Lancashire side were experiencing the worst season in their history, their unbroken membership of the top flight being in real jeopardy with just one win and one draw to show for thirteen away games during the season. Confidence was lacking in both camps but on a snow bound pitch it was the Bantams who got the boost of two goals before the interval and though Ernie Thompson gave the visitors hope in the second period it proved short lived before Harry Travis bagged his second of the game to wrap up a cupset. Derby manager George Jobey watched on, his high flying County side being the team lying in wait in round five and while full of praise for Bradford he also slammed Rovers as the most lacklustre eleven he could remember ever seeing representing that club dating back to the first time he'd seen them in 1905. City gave Derby a game all the same and were left ruing squandered chances in a single goal defeat.

One side of Bradford had already booked their place among the cupsets of '36 by the time this marathon was settled in Park Avenue's favour in conditions most said were the worst they'd ever seen for football. Last year's beaten finalsists, Albion had thought they had done enough to win the first match at Horton Park Avenue but were pegged back late on. The reverse was true of the replay at The Hawthornes where the home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief to survive two hours of pummelling from their Second Division visitors. Both games had resulted in 1-1 draws and now Old Trafford was the setting for the third instalment. Manchester awoke to bitterly cold conditions and a howling gale blowing from the Stretford End, which, when combined with the bone hard surface, had the players entering the field like children forced on stage against their will for a nativity. Avenue won the toss against a very inexperienced looking Albion line up that contained only Teddy Sandford and Ginger Richardson from the eleven that had played at Wembley ten months earlier and, with a force ten at their backs, they ensured they wouldn't have to do much to keep the ball in and around the Albion box. After thirteen minutes Baggies' keeper, Adams misjudged a Murtin corner and the ball was heading straight into the goal when Nolan made certain. After thirty-five minutes Adams again misjudged a corner and this time gifted Doran an open goal to aim at. Even so, most in the stadium felt that Albion, with the gale at their backs in the second half, would overturn the defecit but Bradford keeper, Bell remained largely untroubled as the Baggies failed to take advantage of the conditions. The reward for Avenue was an all second division clash with fellow giant killers Tottenham where a replay was again needed before the men from Horton Park Avenue bowed out.

On the only previous occasion that Second Division Barnsley had beaten two top flight sides in a cup run they went on to lift the trophy but almost a quarter of a century on, with a side less reliant on physical strong arm tactics, they fell short in the quarter finals. Not before dishing out a fresh set of memories for a new generation though. The Tykes were at the wrong end of Division Two, although seemingly far enough clear of the drop not to be too concerned at their position, when they took on Birmingham in round three. A creditable draw at Oakwell was thought to be the height of their cup exploits for the year but luck was on their side in the replay at St Andrews where the First Division club were robbed of the services of Frank White to injury after only ten minutes. Chuck Hine had no sympathy for the home side when he fired Barnsley in front midway through the first half and Birmingham's fate was sealed with Pongo Waring's second half strike. To add insult to injury for the home fans, Waring had arrived at Oakwell having been a cult hero of Birmingham's rival, Aston Villa. Tranmere were disposed of in round four before Barnsley again faced a home tie against top flight opposition, this time being a high flying and exciting Stoke side that contained a young Stan Matthews. Never before had a Football match at Oakwell attracted so much interest and many of the crowd record attendance, which still stands, were making their way through the turnstiles when Gallacher fired the Tykes in front inside forty seconds. To their credit, Stoke didn't let such an early setback affect them and before the game was ten minutes old, Harry Davies had levelled with a long range drive that evaded several Barnsley players and left Ellis rooted as it crashed into the net. Barnsley thought they were back in front midway through the first half when Fisher beat Wilkinson but the referee wasn't fooled that the forward had used his hands to force the ball home. Stoke didn't take heed of the warning and a minute before the interval they were made to pay when Chuck Hine finished off a great move by meeting a knee high cross with an angled volley that allowed Wilkinson only the chance to make a valiant leap that looked good for the cameras. Stoke piled on the pressure in the second half with Matthews wastefull with one glorious chance before Freddie Steele thought he had equalised only to be correctly flagged offside. For the victorious Tykes came a quarter final tie draw in which they were one of four Second Division sides in the hat. Talk of 1912 filled the pubs of the town until Monday lunchtime when Arsenal were drawn as their opponents, At Highbury. The Gunners afforded Barnsley the courtesy of letting them wear the red shirts while the home side switched to hoops but there the hospitality ended. A first half penalty put the Gunners in front and they were home and dry by the time Barnsley scored a consolation goal.

Sheffield United had already secured one scalp [see vs Preston above] when they took on Leeds in round five at Bramall Lane. Like Barnsley, just down the road, United were attracting a record crowd that stands to this day as over 68,000 started arriving at Bramall Lane just after midday. By a quarter past two the gates were closed with still many thousands being left outside, being told there was simply no more room. Twenty minutes before kick off came the first of two events that threatened to spoil The Blades' day as the fog descended on the ground and for the thousands who had chosen the old cricket pavilion side any view of the pitch was obliterated. Back in the thirties the football and cricket grounds shared the same land with the cricket stand on Cherry Street sitting a good hundred yards away from the football action. Undaunted, the Sheffield fans simply clambered over the low cricket pitch fences and scampered across the ground to take up position on the touchline. the police accepted the situation and simply assisted in marshalling the fans into an orderly group. They probably got a better view than anyone in the other three stands as the second event to threaten their day came twelve minutes into the game when a corner was bundled home by Billy Furness. Sheffield United's quick response to equalise turned the game though it wasn't until Jock Dodds scored early in the second half that they were in control. With Leeds fighting for an equaliser the game was settled when Jack Pickering scored his second of the game. Oddly, having sent two top flight sides packing, United managed to get to the final without facing top flight opponents in the quarter or semi finals as Spurs and Fulham were beaten and they gave Arsenal an almighty scare before losing at Wembley with Jock Dodds claiming until his death in 2007 that he would have equalised had he not been pushed by an Arsenal defender before heading onto the bar just moments after the Gunners had takent the lead that proved decisive.